Pageantry is all very well and good when it's not costing two fortunes that the public purse can ill afford. I'd have much rather seen the money spent on organising the dancing nurses redirected to putting actual nurses on the wards...
And all this expenditure, for what? To celebrate a super-annuated sports day, a gross celebration of those whose lives have been so focussed on running a bit fast, jumping, or throwing things that they absolutely require a bauble to validate their own existence. This is not to be celebrated: it is pitiable. The saddest element of the whole sorry nonsense, however, was seeing normally sensible members of the press get caught up in the whole nonsense - particularly those who fooled themselves into thinking the current government will even Boyle's little flag waving for the NHS, let alone permit it to trouble them with even a second thought as they gleefully set about dismantling it.

On the plus side, though, the whole sorry farce is now over and will never return during my lifetime. As a bonus, it is to be hoped that FIFA also took note of events such as the farcial situation over security contractors to perform as per contractual obligations, the large piles of appalling, unsold tat featuring those hideous logos and mascots, the half-empty stadiums, and thus we Londoners will not have to suffer hosting a World Cup any time soon, which would assuredly be even worse.

Although the Opening Ceremony was described as three hours long, with the Parade of Nations occupying a significant portion, there was probably less than an hour to work with to provide a potted history of the UK. The "Green and Pleasant Land" segment apparently took place before the official start, so the rest was divided into "Pandemonium" (which I felt lasted a little too long and slightly confused timeline wise, with Brunel's chimneys being 'built' at the same time as the Suffragettes, Windrush and the forging of the rings), the NHS / children's literature bit, the Abide With Me bit (which the commentators said was related to 7/7, but the stadium voiceover said was dedicated to relatives of those in the stadium who "couldn't be with us" so probably covering all forms of death), the pop music / technology bit and "Happy and Glorious" (sorry Daniel and Liz, but for me the Corgis were better actors than either of you two - and they didn't have to learn any lines!)

I suppose in presenting a positive image of the country, the industrial segment had to stop at that point, after all particularly in the 1980s and 1990s the factories and chimneys were largely torn down to make way for retail sheds, with the remaining mills either abandoned or converted into trendy apartments. As for the pop music bit, much of what I remembered from the 1990s was absent - apparently there was a Blur track, but no Oasis, Pulp or (heaven forbid) Spice? Then again, I suppose pop (in the eyes of many) has gone downhill recently - we don't seem to have much in the way of original acts that write their own stuff, let alone bands that include musicians (rather than a bunch of talent[less] contest winners or those who auditioned for the part, singing either covers or stuff written by songwriting companies hired by the record label)...

I suppose for any director, working out which key (positive!) achievements of Britain can not only be celebrated in under an hour, but incorporated into a multimedia song-and-dance spectacular, would be tricky - especially as we have a habit of being self-deprecatory (and not without good reason, given all the subjugation of various peoples - including those in far-flung bits of our own country! - we've done in the past). I suppose at the least they could have had a nod to Charles Dickens as well as Will Shakespeare (who of course comes from the *other* Stratford), and got the Welsh children to sing Land of My Fathers (which is the Welsh National Anthem, rather than a hymn which happened to be written by a Welshman: Danny Boy, while written by an Englishman to an Irish tune, was noted at the time to have been sung widely by "Sinn Feiners and Ulstermen alike", so I suppose was an appropriate tune for that region, while Flower of Scotland is one of the main candidates for unofficial Scottish National Anthem).

Still, despite my misgivings (including the half hour of cuts - which presumably included the battle of the music genres in the mosh pits, the Doctor Who theme [which was alluded to by the TARDIS materialisation sound effect during Bohemian Rhapsody] and The Liberty Bell), I enjoyed it overall.

Actually, with our sense of self-deprecation, perhaps they should grab Eric Idle for the closing ceremony to lead everyone in a rendition of ALOTBSOL :D

Yes art reflects society. Someone else pays for your sex life and the support for a never ending streaming of welfare babies!!!!!They never included the riots???

It was basically a very good show for the home audience and people of the former British Empire, and those of us foreigners who know omething about things British. While this adds up to a very large portion of the global audience, there were still millions upon millions of people out there for whom much of the content was totally irrelevant or incomprehensible. Does it matter? Not really, but it might be a good idea to remember that while the known world is British to a lot of people, Britain isn't the whole world.

One Indian online commenter said it was a showcase of out TV programmes and wondered aloud if this was all British culture amounted to now. It kind of is isn't it. It's not the fall of the empire that is responsible for that I feel, I thinkit's been the accompanying masochism.

You do realise do you that the descendants of the mill workers and steel workers who marched from Jarrow are the people who went on to march against mass immigration and multiculturalism, while Leftie multiculturalists sneered at them from afar? And who now sit in long-term unemployment and discarded cultures thanks to Labour unable to compete with millions prepared to dispense with workers' rights.

Trying to portray yourselves as the inheritors of their legacy adds insult to injury. Does hypocrisy come any bigger than that?

You are right. It was fabulous seeing the things I care about being celebrated and that hasn't happened for a long long time from Left, Right and/or Centre. We have been beaten into submission by scandals from MPs, bankers, the Press and anyone else we laid our trust in.
This is OUR country and we should keep fighting to keep it a fair and just country. I thank Danny Boyle for reminding me.

Regarding representation of the part ethnic minorities have played in Britain in thladder 50 years, itwasn't the Windrush's arrival that annoys your political foes, it's the fact that the typical English family is presented as mixed race, and the third act representing the future included one white person and three black ones. And the Olympic flag had no white Britons carrying it, but two minority ones. It's not as if this happened by accident, that was by totally conscious design.

Given the two previous acts in the show which showcased only a tiny selection of what Britain gave the world pre-Windrush (no Newton, Darwin, Parliamentary system, Enlightenment, canon of great authors), it feel like an arrogant and depressing slap in the face. The message I got last night was: you're part of the past and the future is vacuous, yay!

Yes that pisses people off.

I prefer the term "anti-racist humanitarian" to "leftie" and as such a person I too was impressed with the attempt at a social history of England in the 2012 London Olympic Games Opening Ceremony (Serra-moan-ee in Americanized, US lackey Australia) - however I was angered by the gross lying by omission.

It was greatly inferior to Beijing in terms of Art and Spectacle but it did provide some English social history including the Enclosures, the Industrial Revolution, England as factory of the world, World War 1, the post-WW2 Welfare State and the NHS. However in doing this it followed a long tradition of dishonest English historiography involving massive lying by omission (what British-Sierra Leonian heritage Aminatta Forna called "the secret lie" in her recent novel "The Memory of Love" (Google "Review "The Memory of Love" War, trauma & lying").

Some of the Elephant in the Room historical realities involving London-based genocidal violence that were utterly ignored by the Opening Ceremony:

1. The Scottish Clearances in which Highland Scots (including my forebears) were replaced by sheep and driven from their lands by deprivation and starvation (a Scots choir sang in English).

2. The ethnocide of Wales (a Welsh choir sang in English).

3. The Irish Famine in which 1 million perished and 1-2 million were forced to emigrate (a Northern Irish choir sang "Danny Boy", in English).

4. Over 2 centuries of an Indian Holocaust in which 1.8 billion Indians died avoidably from imposed deprivation, 10 million were butchered in reprisals in the decade after the 1857 Rebellion, massive famines from the 1769-1770 Bengal Famine (10 million killed) to the WW2 Bengali Holocaust (6-7 million Indians deliberately starved to death with Australian complicity; Google “Australian ABC Censors Australia- And UK-Complicit WW2 Bengali Famine (6-7 Million Dead)” ).

5. Anglo-imposed imperial genocide on all inhabited continents (continuing this century today in Palestine, Somalia, Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan), slavery, imperial theft, indentured labor, opium to China etc that enabled Victorian "civilization" and industrialization (see my book "Jane Austen and the Black Hole of British History" now available for free perusal on the Web ).

6. 1950-2005 avoidable deaths from deprivation in countries variously occupied by the UK in the post-war era totalled 727 million (see my book "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950" now available for free perusal on the Web).

7. 1,000 years of bloody Celtic conflict with England was dismissed as rugby union "game" in the TV version fed to Australia - with the English finally winning with the final drop goal by Jonny Wilkinson to defeat an Australia borne of English and Celtic refugees and convicts.

Some of the real truth did emerge e.g. the dominant role of "men in top hats" who still run the show (formerly the gentry, aristocrats, nabobs and industrialist freemasonry, now Pacmen or Prosperous Anglo-Celtic Men); Her Majesty greeting Mr Bond (007 with a licence to kill, such licence having been exercised in Iraq, Afghanistan , Libya in recent years) and now evidently in Syria); and the statue of Winston Churchill conducting proceedings (there is no mention in his Nobel Prize-winning, 6-volume “The Second World War” any mention of the 6-7 million Indians he deliberately starved to death in the 1942-1945 Bengali Holocaust).

And what the Ceremony ignored was the glory of multicultural London and the brilliant British science behind the continuing Industrial Revolution (notably chemistry and physics) and the NHS (notably biochemistry, pharmaceuticals , immunology) - instead we had "pop". History ignored yields history repeated.

why should the British feel proud? what has that nonsense got to do with the Olympics? I didn't see the ceremony, but it sounds absolutely ridiculous, and, it follows, typically British. what has the NHS got to do with the world gathering of athletes? after all, it's no great shakes, the NHS... In the last evaluation of health care by WHO the UK's NHS was in 12th place. France was first, Italy third.... the US, about 23rd as I recall. Patriotism? patriotism is love of country. That's all. Love of the place of birth of oneself and one's fathers. I am a patriot. i love England, and Europe, both being the place of my birth and my fathers. And hate the Coca Cola, Macdonald's Olympic Games (London) 2012. Vive Jose Bove.

Right, I could never be accused of being a leftie and there are certainly parts of the whole thing I found a bit boring but I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the spectacle, the enthusiasm and the imagery, the rings being a particular highlight for me. I enjoyed that the people organising the show had a sense of humour and went to bed thinking what a good show.

Then I woke up to this drivel. Right and left wing idiots, as per usual, making it all about them. And if the fact that part of what you enjoyed is that you think other people would have hated it, well, that says a heck of a lot about you.

Personally I hope that everyone found something in it to enjoy.

I didn't see it, I refused to. I have no interest in seeing the wasted cash directly, it would turn my stomach.

For example, "celebrating" the NHS has cost it the ability to treat how many people?

Yes. All good fun. And jolly patriotic.

I don't think I was alone in being excited & proud but acutely 'embaressed' in equal parts, with particular reference to the interesting re-working of the 'Industrial Revolution' narrative.

Where were Mr Marx and Mr Engels who carefully and dispassionately described the suffering of the ordinary people of Manchester in the the shadow of the greed of the Northen Industrialists during the Industrial Revolution? Satanic mills and fat sadistic stove-hatted capitalists.

Shame on all you 'Liberals' who deny this reality.